Strong Odor In Downtown Elizabethton

Some merchants along Elk Avenue in Elizabethton, say they have smelled a strong odor coming from the town’s storm drains for years.

Johann Coetzee, Elizabethton’s Director of Waste Water and Engineering, says the odor is from one of two sources. Either there is an old cross-connection between a sewer system and the storm drains, or someone is illegally dumping organic material into the drains.

During the recent Covered Bridge Celebration, the smell was so intense, that the city brought in a water truck to flush out the storm drains to lessen the odor.

Right now, Waste Water officials are conducting tests in downtown to find the source of the odors. They are releasing dye in each individual building along Elk Avenue.  The tracer dye is put down sinks, or flushed down toilets in order to see where it goes.  This is a slow process that could take days, or weeks to finish.

But according to Coetzee, the city is serious about finding and fixing this problem.